So I was watching this Entity Framework presentation and I noticed one example that looked like this:

db.ExecuteSqlCommand($"delete from Log where Time<{time}");

Was this an invitation to SQL injection? Apparently not, since the resulting SQL was something like DELETE FROM Log WHERE Time < @_p0. But how could that be? Enter FormattableString, which is a class implementing the venerable IFormattable interface, but which is available in .NET Framework only from version 4.6 and in .NET Core from the very beginning. Apparently, when an interpolated string is assigned to a FormattableString, it is compiled as an instance with all the values from the string before the formatting. In our case ExecuteSqlCommand had a FormattableString overload. Note that the method is an extension method from RelationalDatabaseFacadeExtensions, not Database.ExecuteSqlCommand.

Here I create an instance of TimeDisplay and then use it in an interpolated string which is then sent to the Test method, which Console.WriteLines it. The ToString method of TimeDisplay is overridden to display the current time. The result is predictable: Time display:2018-12-13T11:24:02. I will then change the type of the parameter of Test to be FormattableString. It still works and it displays the same thing. Note that if I have both a FormattableString and a string version of the same method, string will be used first when an interpolated string is sent as a parameter!

But what do I get in that instance? Let's change the Test method even more:

The displayed result of the program is now Format: Time display:{0} ArgumentCount: 1 Arguments: 2018-12-13T11:28:35. Note that the argument is in fact a TimeDisplay instance and it is displayed as a time stamp because of the ToString override.

What does this mean?

Well, we can do great things like Entity Framework does, interpreting the intent of the developer and providing a more informed output. I am considering this as a solution for logging. Logger.LogDebug($"{someObjectWithAHeavyToString}") now doesn't have to execute the ToString() method of the object unless the Debug log level is enabled, for example.

But we can also really mess things up. I will get past the possible yet unlikely security problem where you believe you pass an object as .ToString() and in fact it is passed as the entire object, allowing a malicious library to do whatever it wants with it. Let's consider more probable scenarios.

One is that a code reviewer will tell you "put magic strings in their own variables or constants", so you immediately take the string sent to test and automatically move it a local variable (which Visual Studio will create it as a FormattableString), then you replace that with var (because the type is obvious, right?). Suddenly the test variable is a string.

Another is even worse, although if you decided to code like this you have other issues. Let's get back to something similar to the original example:

db.ExecuteSqlCommand($"delete from Log where Id = {id}");

And let's change it:

var sql=$"delete from Log where Id = {id}";db.ExecuteSqlCommand(sql);

Now sql is a string, its value is computed from the id, which might be provided by the user. Replace this with Bobby Tables and you got a nice SQL injection.

Conclusion: an interesting, if somewhat confusing, concept. Other than the logging idea, which I admit is pretty interesting, I am yet to find a good place to use it.